Fighting Fate: Book 2 of the Warrior Chronicles (38 page)

“You’re not hearing me Frank. Tonight was the last show of this tour. I’m outta here.” Ram held the cell away from his ear as his manager screamed about contract clauses and ‘substantial compliance’.

When Frank was no longer roaring but pleading Ram continued. “No not for a few days. Can whoever knew about this shit, I mean it. If it ever happens again the whole crew is fired and I’ll sue your ass. I’ll call you in a couple of months.” Ram hung up before he threw away his entire career. He knew better than most that in his business you were only as good as your next show. Unfortunately for his crew, the way he was feeling the rest of the tour would tank and no one would make any money.

Frank would issue a press release saying that Ram came down with something and the remaining shows would have to be rescheduled. They were on the last leg of the tour anyway. Their last stop was Milwaukee, a venue Ram usually loved. They’d reschedule in the fall and he’d make sure to give the best show he knew how to give.

It was going to be his farewell show with
Purple Orchid
, although the band didn’t know it yet. Ram wanted a second chance at a real life. That was worth jeopardizing his next contract for.

Some days it sucked being a rock star.

...

“William. Are you listening to me?”

When William finally looked at her, Rhia wondered when exactly in the course of their seventeen year marriage he’d learned the fine art of tuning her out completely.

“I heard you Rhia. There are two weeks worth of frozen meals for the kids. Oh, and by the way, you want me to clear out the rest of my stuff before you get back from Wales.” William waived the spoon from his cereal bowl in the air. “Yadda, yadda, yadda.”

Rhia sat at her kitchen table next to her ex-husband. “We’ve been divorced six months. Don’t you think it’s time you stopped sleeping in the guest room?” Rhia asked.

Their children were already gone for the summer at their grandparent’s ranch and Rhia finally had the time and the opportunity to do the research she’d wanted to do since grad school.

“William, you know it’s time for both of us to move on. I’ve got the chance to do my research on Celtic goddesses, and you’ve got a chance to do something other than work sixty hours a week.” Rhia was being more open and honest with William than she’d been in years. Funny how finally admitting her marriage was over freed her to see the good in William again. He really was a decent man, for the most part. She just wanted more than a decent man who made time for his family only after work and his golf game.

If she ever contemplated a serious relationship again, which was doubtful, Rhia would pick a man who was capable of using the words ‘hot’ and ‘Rhiannon’ in the same sentence. Of course this mythical man would also want only her and not every twenty-two year old intern who worked for him. Rhia shook off the thought. The last thing she needed now was a man in her life...

Rhia pulled her t-shirt away from her neck. There’d be plenty of time for that when she left. It was time for her to make some positive changes in her life, she thought with a smile. It was time for her to explore her inner warrior woman, just like the Celtic goddesses she yearned to write about. Rhia intended to come back to Milwaukee at the end of the summer more independent and experienced, a woman capable of taking on life’s challenges on her own, without a man who considered her an after thought. She didn’t want William, or his presence, in her house when she returned. She had no intention of falling into old habits.

William shoved his face closer to his cereal bowl. “My condo’s almost done.” He muttered.

“You have to leave William. This isn’t doing either one of us any good. I don’t mind if you stay here awhile, just make sure you’re out of here before school starts. I want a fresh start.” Rhia finished her coffee wondering why they hadn’t shared breakfast together while they were actually married.

William looked into his cereal bowl as if he weren’t certain what he was supposed to do with its contents. He’d stopped eating when Rhia said she wanted him out of her house. She studied her ex with the eyes of a woman no longer tainted by hurt and expectation.

With his athlete’s body and silver streaked dark hair William was still a fine looking man; better looking at forty than he had been at twenty-two when she married him. Being one of Milwaukee’s most successful litigators hadn’t hurt his appeal either. Rhia didn’t know how many women he’d fallen into bed with over the years, and she no longer cared. She had a second chance at life and she was going to take it, without looking back. Looking at William no longer filled Rhia with regret for what might have been, she was too busy looking forward to her independence.

“I’m comfortable here. I like it. I like you too.” William sounded like a little boy who had just been told he couldn’t keep an old toy he hadn’t played with in years.

“If you wanted to keep the house, you should have bought me out.”

“It’s not the house.” William’s pleading brown eyes held hers, Rhia remained unmoved.

Rhia got up and put her coffee cup in the dishwasher. Her bags were packed. She’d kissed Ethan and Hunter good-bye before they went on their annual pilgrimage to their grandparents’ ranch just west of Yellowstone. They both had summer jobs lined up when they got back. They wouldn’t even know she was gone.

“You can’t have a family and be single at the same time William. It doesn’t work that way. You made your choice a long time ago. I made the choice to move on. Let’s stick with that.” Rhia kissed the top of his head and grabbed the keys to her minivan.

“I’m willing to sell you the house if you still want it. If not, I expect to pick up the kids at your condo at the end of the summer.”

Rhia left feeling lighter than she had in months.

Sometimes being a history professor on sabbatical really rocked.

and just in case you missed it:

SPARRING PARTNERS

BOOK 1 OF THE DOJO CHRONICLES

by Leigh Morgan

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They are in each other all along.

Rumi ~13th Century

CHAPTER ONE

“
You need a husband
.”

Those four words, if ever appropriate, belonged in a different century: one where traitors were still drawn and quartered. They didn’t belong echoing off the marble floors of a twenty-first century courthouse where doing the right thing should be synonymous with helping those who have no legal voice of their own, namely children.

Unfortunately for child advocate and all around idealist, Reed Mohr, those four words, a mere five syllables, meant the difference between getting fourteen-year-old Jesse Bane out of his tenth foster home in four weeks, or consigning him to hell until the system spat him out at eighteen.

Unacceptable every way Reed looked at it. If the most expedient way to adopt Jesse was to get married first, so be it. She could remedy that after Jesse was safe.

Losing her single status was one thing. Losing her livelihood in the process was quite another. Reed Mohr hadn’t considered that the judges she ultimately answered to, would strip her of the one thing she poured her heart and soul into doing well, representing the least powerful among us, the young and the elderly. But she should have, Reed thought, mentally kicking herself.

Reed knew the drill in Judge Meen’s juvenile court. Single parents didn’t adopt. Child advocates don’t take their clients home.

Children aren’t puppies, Reed
.

Three words this time, bouncing in her hyper-charged brain.

Really, Reed thought? Fourteen-year-old boys who witness their heroin addict fathers inject their mothers with enough dope to kill an elephant aren’t puppies?
Who knew
? Apparently not Reed who, if she wanted to keep her job, would do as instructed, which amounted to shutting up and letting this one go. Only she couldn’t do that. This one wasn’t a cause or a whim or another of the rag-tag animal misfits she dragged home. This one happened to have a name: Jesse. And she wasn’t about to let him get swallowed by the system and flushed away like waste.

“You know you cannot adopt in this county without being married.” Judge Meen said from his perch behind the formidable oak bench in juvenile court, looking down at Reed over reading glasses he didn’t actually need.

“The juvenile code does not prohibit a single person from adopting, your honor.”

“How long have you practiced law in Radkin County, Reed?”

“You know the answer to that, judge.”

“Remind me.” Judge Meen said.

“Twelve years.”

“Are you willing to piss all that away for a kid you don’t know? A kid with two junkies for parents? A kid who at fourteen is already damaged goods?” Judge Meen’s voice continued to escalate bouncing off the marble floors and oak walls as it gained momentum and smacked into Reed with the tangible force of a slap to the face.

“Jesse Bane isn’t a puppy, Reed. You can’t just take him home and train him to love you. He’ll just piss all over your house”.

Reed couldn’t control the shiver that ran down her spine at the judge’s words. She was afraid that she might be making a huge mistake. What was it about Jesse that made her think she could be a mother to a damaged fourteen year old boy?

Sweat began to run under her arms, behind her knees and at the small of her back, causing another involuntary shiver. Her heart beat painfully as it slammed against her ribs.

Was she really ready to lose her job?

Could she stomach being married to anyone long enough to adopt Jesse?

Could she afford to start her life over again at thirty-six?

Could she turn and walk away from Judge Meen and everything that was wrong with the juvenile justice system and pretend she couldn’t have made it better for at least one child, if she’d only found her backbone behind the twisted snake-like mass her insides had become?

No. Not today. Not tomorrow. Never again.

Reed pushed all five foot three and one quarter inches of her frame upward, standing as tall as she could, and forced herself to take a deep, calming breath, until time slowed to its natural pace again.

This was her moment. With a clarity Reed Mohr didn’t question, she knew what she did next would define the rest of her life. She took another breath and stepped forward realizing that she was too damn old to pretend she couldn’t make a difference if she chose to.

She took another step closer to the bench and then another, thanking the spirits above that she had the foresight to put on the one pair of heels she owned instead of her usual flats. The extra two inches helped feed her inner giant.

“You’re right, judge. Jesse Bane is not a puppy.” Reed’s chin shot up and she forced her voice not to quaver as she looked up at the judge without blinking. “I’ll have a husband tomorrow. You’ll have my petition for adoption on your desk as soon as an adoption study can be completed. Since Jesse has no family, and I know you hate burdening the foster care system, I’ll expect you to sign the order.” Knowing she was dangerously close to contempt of court Reed added, “Your honor.”

“I’ll sign it, Ms. Mohr. But the second I do you’ll never work as a child advocate in this county again. You won’t be sending the kid back either. I’ll throw your tail in jail if you try.”

Reed gave a quick nod and swallowed past the dry knot at the back of her throat. “I understand. No refunds. No returns. No job. Thanks for clearing that up for me, your honor.” Reed smiled. It was a small smile at first, but as it gained distance, the clenching in her stomach began to ease and swallowing became easier. Her heartbeat returned to normal and the clammy feeling she’d felt earlier disappeared.

“Get out of here, Mohr, before I have you incarcerated for pissing me off, and good luck. You’re going to need it”.

It wasn’t contempt that had Reed humming her way out of the courtroom, it was a feeling of lightness that came with knowing she’d made the right call, the only call, she could have made. Now all she had to do was propose to the only single adult male she could stomach living with for more than a week and hope he didn’t laugh in her face.

Charlie wouldn’t laugh at her, he never laughed at any of the crazy notions she got in her head. Charlie wasn’t a laugher, Charlie was an instigator. Charlie would understand her need to give Jesse a real home where he was loved. Jesse would be well loved at Potters Woods. Reed would just have to learn about parenting as she went. Charlie would help her as he had from the moment she’d walked into his class as an undergraduate student with fear in her eyes and trepidation in her heart.

Reed graduated with a degree in history at the top of her undergraduate class with the support of Charlie and her aunt, Finn. Charlie pushed her to stop talking about injustice and start doing something to change it when she could; like today. Charlie was the reason Reed went to law school. Charlie and Finn were the only family Reed acknowledged since the death of her mother, at least until now. Now, she would have Jesse too. All doubts that Reed had walking into the courtroom fled. She’d done the right thing. Now, all she needed was a husband.

Charlie was her man. Ardent Democrat, Jimmy Buffett fan, sixty-two year old college professor. And, he had one other thing going for him that no other man Reed respected and cared for had. Charles Renee MacIntyre the third was Flaming-rainbow-flag-flying-gay.

Reed wouldn’t want even a short term husband any other way.

About the author:

A native mid-westerner from South Eastern Wisconsin, Morganne MacDonald (
writing as Leigh Morgan
) a member of RWA and WisRWA since 2005, has been writing since pre-school (with crayons) and is still in training (although she now uses a netbook).